Constance O'Day-Flannery

How much do I love historical romances? A lot! And if there's time travel? Woot, even better! I love "A Time for Love" because the romance isn't shoved in my face.

When it comes to historical romances, I like it when the physicality isn't so wa-pow, in my face... it's nice to see romance unfold slowly.

This is one of my favorite books - it's really heartwarming and made me cry. Not a lot of books have accomplished that. :)

Knowing that she'll never escape the small mining she was born and raised in, the heroine feels completely trapped and without hope. Surrounded by horrible memories and people who look down upon her-judge her and find her lacking, she wants to explore the world before she's sent to hell for her sins. In the town where men slave underground for 10 or more hours a day and day young due to coal inhalation, she's called upon her brother to aid him and his group in bombing the records department show more of the business so to wipe clear the debts of all the people of the town. In the process of trying to plant the bomb, dressed as a nun, the charge goes off early and the heroine is sucked into blackness. She wakes up in a strange aircraft on the way to heaven-she believes, and in the presence of her guardian angel. The hero, a wealthy new York business man who's disenchanted with life and lonely, finds the nun who just suddenly appeared next to him to be a healthy mix of burden and life saver. Her complete innocent and doe in the headlight eyes make him want to protect her-and if he's being honest, kiss her as well but he feels enough guilt over lusting for a nun to stop himself. When she turns up at his apartment wounded, he takes her in. Then truly bizarre things start happening. He has a dream that he's in historical Pennsylvania, fighting her brother in a bar and going to work in the mines. He wakes up to the startling revelation that not only did the heroine share his dream but in fact it wasn't a dream at all. She's come forward from the past and somehow, someway, she begins to take him back to the past. Only in short bursts, just enough for him to understand the hardship of the life for the people of her town and to feel righteous anger with the fat cats who willingly allow these people to suffer. He befriends her brother and involves himself in the campaign to bring the mistreat of the workers to the public. The heroine finds herself invisible during their trips back to her time and it pains her to see the grief and torment in her brothers eyes over her death. The heroine and hero sleep together. The hero professing his love for the heroine and she in turn does the same-but not before telling him she's not a nun. She came clean finally because she never wanted to keep up the life but didn't want to hurt the hero either. And she wanted him to know that she'll always be honest with him going forward. But her confession drives them apart. He's hurt by what he considers her betrayal and feels the trust is gone, especially once he learns that she birthed a child in her young only to have the enfant stillborn. During the tense and awkward afterward, the heroine finds out she's pregnant. Remembering the heart ache the last time she brought the news to the man she loved, she instead gets a job cleaning houses. The hero desperately searches for her and once he finds her, he begs her forgiveness and pleads with her return. But life isn't that simple and circumstances draw them back to the past and tragedy strikes, leaving the hero to find a way to survive with the grief. I almost for thought this book would end with the heroine being truly dead and it unleashed a fierce anger within me. But luckily it does right itself and the end-mind you pretty much the last page. The passion, the heartache and the drama of this book drew me in and held me tight within it's coils from start to finish. I thought the time travel aspect was unique and refreshing. It was so much more than just a heroine travels to the future, 'whatever will she do?' novel. This story and these characters had true heart and each suffered but gained understanding within themselves because of it. I'll start with the heroine. So damn innocent and mousy and completely dependent on the hero for survival for most of the book, when it was time for her to fend for herself she did strike out on her own and was determined to survive. I admired her greatly. She was so kind-too kind in most things which is why she had such trouble when she was separated from the hero. But she was passionate about her family, protective of anyone who thought to disrespect her brother of the hero in her presence. The hero was so lost from the second he laid eyes on her. She had him completely under her spell but she didn't even know it. Sure he could be a bit of a jerk sometimes and totally overreacted to the new she wasn't a nun or a virgin but when she left him, he realized what he had lost and his love for her shined brightly through the pages. This book had the whole package. It made me laugh (when the hero is drunk and stumbling down the street on the arm of an invisible woman). It made me cry (when the heroine lays dead on the sheet and the hero cries out his anguish). And it made me feel all warm inside watching their love bud and then blossom. Awesome book. show less

Ah yes, the queen of time travel romance, as they say about this author and it's so true! I've always enjoyed her writing because it conveys the undulating slowness of courtship so beautifully.

In "Once and Forever," I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of pagan history and knowledge in it, and my pagan heart soared when the author wrote "So mote it be." Woohoo! :)

One of my favorite quotes from the book:

"I think humility is seeing the truth and not denying it, with the gracious ability show more to thank the observer. Perhaps that is what I might teach you... not to give your power away so easily." (Once and Forever, Constance O'Day-Flannery) show less

The heroine wakes up in pain and blinded and in the middle of a sand storm. She then sees a hansom man appear out of a bolt of lightning and thinks she's going insane but he's her only hope for salvation. The hero brings her to safety but tells her she's traveled back in time and must blend in with the locals. Of course, typical for your B-plot book, she throws a hissy fit and adamantly denies she's now in the 1800's and that the hero is crazy despite all the prove around her sayings he's show more right. They travel to the big city at her demand so she can meet up with her sister, only to discover, shocker, that he was right all along. They becomes gets a villa and the hero slowly teaches the heroine patience, understanding and the ability to find joy in life. I'll say now that I didn't enjoy this book at all. For a hero who's so adamant about the balance of light and dark, the author wrote a very muted, happy go lucky book that featured little to no struggle. I despise easy going characters when they have no darkness in them and the hero was so one dimensional. He was so sickly sweet and understanding that I wanted to smack him especially since I know for a fact that no one could bare to be in the heroine company for that long without kicking her in the face. She was ghastly. She whined about everything and thought that just because she crossed her arms or put her hands on her hips that everyone was supposed to take her seriously. About halfway through the book she got it into her head that she wanted the hero's baby...just out of the blue. Known the guy for 4 days, seen him hold 1 child and thought he's be a perfect sperm donor. It was madness and it made no sense considering she's still trapped in the past with no idea how to get home or what to do with a child even if she got one. Top that off with a boring plot and cook cutter setting and characters and it makes for a 1 star rating. I wasn't a fan of this addition to the series. show less